1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording material using a light transmitting support, particularly to an ink-jet recording material for a medical field that is excellent in ink-absorption property, printing density, light transmitting property and printing paper feeding and conveying property, and causes no transfer of a printed image to a back surface of another recording material (hereinafter referred to as “back transcription”).
2. Prior Art
A silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, which has been generally used in a medical field, involves problems that a silver salt is expensive, and a wet process such as a developing treatment, etc. is required, so that a waste liquor must be treated. Also, in a heat-sensitive transfer system, there is a problem of peeling of ink, while in a sublimation system, there is a problem that a printing density is low. To the contrary, an ink-jet recording material employs a completely dry recording system and there are merits that a noise is little, change in a recording pattern is easy and an image can be formed accurately and rapidly, and the like.
As an ink-jet recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording method, it has been known a recording material which comprises an ink-receptive layer made of a hydrophilic polymer or a porous ink-receptive layer containing a pigment such as amorphous silica, etc. and a water-soluble binder, being provided on a support such as a usual paper or the so-called ink-jet recording sheet.
There have been proposed recording materials obtained by coating a hydrophilic polymer such as starch, polyvinyl alcohol, etc. onto a support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 80489/1981, No. 174381/1984, No. 220750/1985, No. 32788/1986, No. 160875/1988, No. 69388/1991, and the like.
There have been also proposed recording materials obtained by coating a silicon-containing pigment such as silica, etc., or an alumina sol with an aqueous binder onto a paper support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51583/1980, No. 157/1981, No. 107879/1982, No. 107880/1982, No. 230787/1984, No. 160277/1987, No. 184879/1987, No. 183382/1987, No. 11877/1989, No. 21508/1991, No. 67986/1992, and the like.
Further, there have been disclosed recording materials using synthetic silica fine particles prepared by a gas phase process (hereinafter referred to as “fumed silica”) in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56552/1991, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 188287/1990, No. 132728/1996, No. 81064/1998, No. 119423/1998, No. 175365/1998, No. 193776/1998, No. 203006/ 1998, No. 217601/1998, No. 20300/1999, No. 20306/1999, No. 34481/1999, and the like.
On the other hand, it has been investigated to prepare a transparent recording sheet for an OHP, etc., or a film for medical use by an ink-jet recording system. These recording sheets are important to have an ink-absorption property, water-resistant property and light transmitting property. In particular, it is important to prevent from causing the problems of blocking or back transcription of an image when printing is carried out continuously and printed papers are piled up.
In Japanese provisional Patent Publication No. 276789/1995, a recording material with a high ink-absorption property and high transparency is disclosed, which comprises a transparent support and provided thereon, a colorant-receptive layer in which a weight ratio of silica fine particles having an average particle size of the primary particles being 10 nm or less and a water soluble polymer is 1.5:1 to 10:1. However, there is no description regarding a blocking property or a prevention against blocking and back transcription of an image.
In Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 174994/1996 and No. 263043/1997, there are proposals to prevent from blocking by adding fine particles or a filler which is/are projected to the surface of an ink-receptive layer. However, these ink-jet recording materials involve problems in glossiness, image sharpness and touched feeling, and an improvement in the ink-receptive layer alone is insufficient to overcome these problems. In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 234944/1997, a proposal to overcome problems in blocking and back transcription of ink has been disclosed by making an absorption property about water and an alcohol having a high boiling point of an opposed surface of an ink-receptive layer a specific value or more. However, its measure to overcome the problem of back transcription of ink was insufficient.